TERMINOLOGY/TRANSLATION ANALYST, Closing date: Wednesday, 25 February 2015

Closing date: Wednesday, 25 February 2015

TERMINOLOGY/TRANSLATION ANALYST

Location : New York, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Application Deadline : 25-Feb-15

Type of Contract : FTA International

Post Level : P-2

Languages Required : English French Spanish

Starting Date : (date when the selected candidate is expected to start)

15-Apr-2015

Duration of Initial Contract : One (1) Year

Expected Duration of Assignment : One Year (renewable)

Background

The Bureau of External Relations and Advocacy (BERA) leads and supports the organization in cultivating, building and nurturing strategic relationships and alliances that are essential for advancing and successfully achieving the mission of UNDP. Within BERA, the Communications Group leads and manages external communications through strategy, media, digital communications, marketing, branding and global storytelling.

The organization produces an extensive range of multilingual materials containing specific terminology pertaining to its main focus areas: sustainable development, democratic governance and peace-building, climate and disaster resilience. Up-to-date and properly-defined terminology is essential to achieving quality languages services and reducing the reputational risk associated with inconsistent translations.

The Terminology/Translation Analyst is part of the Communications Group's Marketing and Outreach team. He/she will be responsible for updating UNDP's terminology database in English, French and/or Spanish. As Language Service Analyst, he/she will also take part in translation management activities and receive significant guidance from the Language Services Manager.

Duties and Responsibilities

Assists the Language Services Manager in the handling of translation management

• Manages the translation and revision from English into French and/or Spanish; occasionally into Arabic, Chinese and/or Russian of web content, press releases, media advisories, speeches, internal communications products, corporate publications, etc.;
• Maintains the contracts of translation companies and freelance translators; and
• Organizes the competitive selection and recruitment of translators.

Develops and maintains lists of technical terms and titles, along with definitions and notes, in UNDP working languages (English, French, Spanish)

• Compiles monolingual and multilingual glossaries in specific technical areas; and
• Develops terminology mining workflow.

Ensures the efficient validation and accuracy of terminological data

• Collaborates with UNDP practice area specialists and writers to ensure upstream validation of terms; and
• Handles terminology and nomenclature queries from other UNPD Business units, Country offices specialized agencies, and other outside bodies.

Liaises with language specialists, including computational linguists, outside the organization to promote the effective delivery and use of correct and uniform UNDP/UN terminology

• Participates in UN Terminology Coordination Board meetings;
• Oversees the seamless incorporation of UNDP dataset into the new online UN terminology portal; and
• Keeps abreast of terminology/computational linguistics trends and developments in machine assisted-translation.

Competencies

Core Competencies

Innovation

• Ability to make new and useful ideas work.

Leadership

• Ability to persuade others to follow.

People Management

• Ability to improve performance and satisfaction.

Communication

• Ability to listen, adapt, persuade and transform.

Delivery

• Ability to get things done.

Technical/Functional

Primary

Knowledge Management

• Ability to efficiently handle and share information and knowledge.

Change Management

• Ability to apply a systematic approach to adapt, control and effect change.

Operational Efficiency

• Ability to identify and execute opportunities to improve operational efficiency:

Knowledge Curation

• Ability to turn raw information into useful knowledge, relevant for context, or responsive to stated need.

Quality Assurance

• Ability to perform administrative and procedural activities to insure that quality requirements and goals are fulfilled.

Secondary

Cultural Translation

• Ability to translate information into the context of the culture.

Team work

• Works collaboratively to achieve organizational goals.

Innovator support

• Ability to manage organizational resources and deployment in pursuit of innovative approaches and initiatives.

Required Skills and Experience

Education

• Advanced University degree in translation, terminology, computational linguistics, plus training as a terminologist or equivalent experience.
• Candidates for this position must have passed the United Nations Competitive Examination for Computational Linguists;
• A combination of a postgraduate degree and relevant experience may be accepted in lieu of the competitive examination requirement.

Experience

• A minimum of 2 years' experience as a terminologist, computational linguist or translator, preferably within the United Nations system;
• Knowledge of international standards in the field of terminology and experience in translation management;
• Experience in development, implementation and management of terminology related multilingual databases.

Language Requirements

• Excellent knowledge of English is required, as well as native fluency in French or Spanish.
• Knowledge of an additional UN language an asset.

Other

• Very good knowledge of computer-assisted translation and terminology mining tools (Trados, Term Extract, MemoQ, XBench, etc.);
• Research competence in terminology; and
• Basic knowledge of information technology and documentation.

UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confide